Wanting Is–What?
by
Wanting is–what?
Summer redundant,
Blueness abundant,
–Where is the blot?
Beamy the world, yet a blank all the same
–Framework which waits for a picture to frame;
What of the leafage, what of the flower?
Roses embowering with naught they embower!
Come then, complete incompletion, O comer,[A]
Pant through the blueness, perfect the summer!
Breathe but one breath
Rose-beauty above,
And all that was death
Grows life, grows love,
Grows love!
NOTE
This poem is in the nature of a prelude to the group of poems published
under the title Jocoseria, 1883. Each poem in this volume shows the
lack of some element that would have brought the human action or
experience to perfection.
A. Comer. The invocation probably refers to the spirit of love with
its inspiring, transforming power.